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Sunday, 19 March 2017

Review - 'Iron Fist', S01E04 - 'Eight Diagram Dragon Palm'

With
the previous episode ending on something of a underwhelming attempt
at a cliff-hanger, the season's fourth episode makes the wise
decision of simply moving things along. Surviving his fall from the
top floor of a building, Danny regains consciousness to find himself
inside Harold Meachum's secret sanctuary – where, it seems, Harold
has decided to take the opportunity to attempt to bring Danny into
the fold. Openly revealing his history with the Hand, and his current
status as an apparent prisoner, forced to do whatever they wish,
Harold's plan is clearly to use Danny as a weapon against his enemies
– a plan which Danny, for his part, seems quite happy to go along
with.

As
a result of this new truce, Harold orders that Ward end any legal
struggle between Danny and the Meachums, and openly acknowledge that
Danny is, in fact, exactly who he has always claimed to be. It's a
rather abrupt transition, of course – but, then, the legal drama we
had previously probably wasn't going to lead anywhere particularly
interesting, anyway (even if it did result in providing Iron
Fist with its first direct
connection to the rest of Netflix's corner of the MCU, in the form of
Jeri Hogarth). So, I suppose I can just accept that moving this
plot-point along so quickly will probably be for the best.

I
do have to admit, though, that there was definitely something oddly
endearing about Danny's shear enthusiasm for it all, as he found
himself brought back into Rand Enterprises in an official capacity
(despite, of course, having absolutely no business experience). One
thing that I have found is that, as the series has progressed, those
aspects of Danny's portrayal that initially bothered me no longer
seem to do so. Danny's naive innocence, as he continues to blunder
his way through just about every situation, actually become a source
of some genuinely funny moments, in this episode. It also provided
one very strong moment of character development, when he simply could
not understand why a business would seek to raise the price on a drug
capable of saving lives.

So,
there was plenty to enjoy about Danny's arc throughout this episode –
but, unfortunately, it also came with its weaker elements. One of the
more frustration aspects of Iron Fist,
over the past few episodes, has been its strange insistence of
'telling' rather than 'showing'. Here, for example, we have Danny
telling Joy about some of his experiences being trained by the monks
of K'un-Lun. It sounded
like a horrible experience, certainly – but, the fact that we
weren't actually shown anything does undermine the potential for
drama, somewhat. Instead of giving us the flash-back to K'un-Lun that
I would have expected, the episode instead chooses to provide Finn
Jones with a close-up, while he tells us about the training.

It
was a weak-point in the episode, certainly – though, fortunately,
it was somewhat balanced out by the fact that this episode also
provided us some great moments of action, both from Colleen Wing, and
from Danny, himself. While Colleen's actual role on the series is
still a point of some confusion for me, since she still seems to
exist on the fringes of the primary story-line, I am still definitely
glad that she has her own sub-plot. While there isn't anything
particularly original about her experiences with the underground
fight club, there is also some very complex character development
going on, here. Colleen has clearly found herself caught between her
need for money to keep her dojo open, and her lingering guilt over
the idea of fighting for money – yet, at the same time, there is
also a somewhat unsettling undercurrent suggesting that she actually
enjoys the violence of her cage fights, too. But brutal manner in
which she has brought both of her matches to an end, as she has
seemed to momentarily lose herself in the violence, definitely gives
the impression that there is more going on, here.

While
Colleen's two-on-one cage fight was a definite high-light, it was
also great to see Danny Rand finally have the opportunity to involve
himself in a proper, large-scale, action sequence as he finds himself
confronted by a group of hatchet-wielding Triad goons, set on
kidnapping Joy.

Another
of the lingering issues I have had with the series, so far, concerns
Danny Rand, himself. Not his characterisation, or the performance of
Finn Jones, of course (both of which have actually started to grow on
me, after the shaky first episode), but rather with the way that he
fights. After fifteen years of being trained at a monastery in
K'un-Lun

I
do understand why Danny's fight sequences are being portrayed in this
way, of course. The staged theatricality of his movements is meant to
give the impression of a measure, and methodical, thought behind
every action. It's meant to give the impression that he truly is a
master of martial arts, able to read his opponents and react before
they have even completed their own actions. The problem, so far, is
that there have been moments where Danny's action sequences have
actually looked more like a choreographed routine than an actual
fight – and, honestly, this has been a bit distracting.

At
the same time, though, there have been other moments where everything
has seemed to come together reasonably well, too. Danny's own
'Hallway Fight' sequence provides the best evidence we have seen, so
far, of what Danny Rand is truly capable of. It was also a very
entertaining action sequence, in its own right – especially when
the action moved into the enclosed space of an elevator.

Honestly,
if the rest of the series has more sequences like this one to offer,
then that would go some way toward balancing out some of its weaker
elements.